


okay, this looks bad

by QueenWithABeeThrone



Series: a tale of two matts [8]
Category: Daredevil (Comics), Daredevil (TV), Hawkeye (Comics)
Genre: Case Fic, Food Criticism, Gen, Marvel 616/MCU Crossover, Reunions, sort. of.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-25
Updated: 2015-07-25
Packaged: 2018-04-11 03:58:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4420427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenWithABeeThrone/pseuds/QueenWithABeeThrone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"You been causin' trouble for us, bro. Beeg, beeg mistake, bro."</i>
</p><p>or: how Kate Bishop and Clint Barton, formerly of the late Earth-616, collided with Nelson & Murdock on a case. (<i>side a:</i> Matt, Kirsten and Karen get into a car chase with a woman calling herself Hawkeye. <i>side b:</i> Clint Barton meets someone he didn't think he'd ever meet again, as well as a fan.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	okay, this looks bad

**Author's Note:**

> okay, with the recent Ant-Man film, I decided--you know what? baby!Kate exists in the MCU, and she totally wants to be an Avenger when she grows up, and she's best friends with Cassie. but bc I'm impatient and want MCU!Matt to meet up with Kate who is not a tiny bratty seven-year-old, I dragged the 616 Hawkeyes in too and made them the owners of MCU!Foggy's place. there's a spin-off all about them and poor MCU!Clint who has to deal with this shit too in the works.
> 
> it may be obvious that car chases are Not My Forte, here. (also--I did not get Hawkeye #22 until after I'd finished this story, so this p much assumes that the worst did happen to Barney Barton. so I suppose we're in AU territory now.)

"Well," Karen says, opening the door to let Kirsten through, "that was--a lot more trying than I thought it would be."

"Hey, look at it this way," says Kirsten, buttoning up her jacket, "at least we _know_ those tracksuit guys Matt's been tangling with do have something to do with the same guys trying to drive Mrs. Montero out of business." She shivers--the autumn season is giving way to winter, she can tell by the chill biting at her ungloved fingers. "Man, poor girl, though. You saw, right?"

"I know," says Karen, a hand disappearing into the pocket where Kirsten knows she's keeping a can of mace as she walks down the stairs. Matt--Karen's Matt, with the dark hair and dark eyes--might be following along on the rooftops, but it never hurts to be careful. Especially in a neighborhood like this, just outside a rundown, leaky building like this. _We'll get those bastards that hurt your brother, I swear to you we will, we just need your help,_ Karen had said, all determination and steel, and Kirsten finds herself wishing she'd met Karen Page, in her universe. "I swear, I'm beginning to seriously hate tracksuits."

"I hear you," Kirsten says, letting Karen lead the way. "But we're making a dent in what they're doing."

"Not fast enough," Karen mutters.

Kirsten nudges her side with her elbow. "Hey, come on," she says. "We're throwing a wrench into their plans. You saw how badly the tracksuit guy and his lawyer wanted to strangle me in court, right?"

"Yeah, when you presented the USB," Karen says, with a light laugh. "It was definitely a lot more entertaining than _Cat-at-Law_."

"High praise, from you," Kirsten dryly says. "But it was worth it just to see their faces." She glances around, sees a man leaning casually against a lamppost, just nearby, eyes hidden behind very large sunglasses, and feels her heart start beating faster when he straightens up. "Don't look now," she murmurs, tearing her gaze away, "but somebody's following us."

"Oh, boy," Karen mutters, gripping the can of mace tighter. "Just one so far?"

"As far as I know," says Kirsten, hearing the sound of heavy footsteps just a few feet away and hurrying up her pace. "But I don't doubt he has back-up."

"I know a shortcut," says Karen, her hand slipping into the crook of Kirsten's elbow. "Come on, we might be able to lose them there."

So Kirsten lets Karen tug her down an alleyway, her hand slipping into her pocket to fish out her keys, positioning them in between her fingers. She resists the urge to toss a glance over her shoulder--she really doesn't want to let the asshole know she knows he's following--and keeps talking, saying, "So I heard there was this restaurant that opened up--Dans Le Noir? I'm thinking I should get Mike to take me there," just the slightest bit louder than she normally would.

"Nah, I don't know, I hear the food's terrible," says Karen, as casual as possible. "What about--this great Japanese place, I think it's called Brushstroke? _Great_ food, definitely perfect for a picky guy like Mike."

"Dunno," says Kirsten, gripping on tight to her, "I hear it's expensive."

They turn left, and--

"Shit," Karen breathes.

"Well," says Kirsten, taking in the sight of four tracksuits to the left and a van to the right blocking their way, " _there's_ the back-up."

She turns on her heel, then, and finds the guy from earlier lingering just a distance away. "Clever," she says.

"You been causin' trouble for us, bro," the guy who's been following them into an _ambush_ drawls, his accent slurring the words, his hand behind his back. "Beeg, beeg mistake, bro."

\--

It had been a slow night, is the thing. Just two or three muggers, easily scared off the moment Daredevil appeared on the scene, and a man getting into a young woman's face who'd required a more hands-on approach before getting the memo, so Matt's followed Karen and Kirsten to Myrna Stein's place.

At least, up until he gets there, because--someone else is there. A young woman, who smells like lavender and licorice, like dog and black and bitter coffee, like blood and metal, is already on the rooftop just across from Stein's building when he gets there, crouched near the edge like she's watching for something.

"Who are you?" he asks, evenly.

The woman lets out a sudden, startled breath, her long hair brushing against her shoulders as she turns her head to look at him. "You know," she says, "I really wasn't expecting you to show up here."

There's something-- _familiar_ about her, but he can't quite place it. He inclines his head and says, "I could say the same for you. Now," and he steps closer, lets his voice drop to a more menacing tone, " _who are you?_ "

The woman doesn't back down, instead tipping her head up. "Hawkeye," she says.

"Isn't Hawkeye a _man_?" Matt asks, a little thrown.

"Yeah, well," says the woman calling herself Hawkeye, "that's Clint. _I'm_ the better Hawkeye."

"Right," Matt says, a little skeptical.

"Working on getting established, though," she adds. "What are you doing here, anyway? This dingy little apartment's a little out of your way, isn't it?"

"I'm--keeping an eye on some friends, you could say," says Matt, reining in a little chuckle at his own joke. "Your turn."

"I'm a private investigator," says Hawkeye. "I'm following up on a lead for a case--you know anything about Myrna Stein's little brother Karl?"

The boy in the hospital, the one Matt had just barely managed to save from being beaten to a pulp by a tracksuit wielding a baseball bat, the one Matt sometimes checks up on who hasn't woken up yet. "I know him," he says. _You can't save everyone,_ Foggy had said, but--well, tell that to Matt. "He hasn't woken up yet. Why?"

"Their half-sister hired me on to figure out who hurt him that bad," says Hawkeye. "Plus, I've got--let's say, a personal interest in taking down these tracksuits."

"So do I," says Matt.

"Yeah, I keep hearing about you beating up a bunch of them nearby," Hawkeye says.

"Recently I've been finding arrows in a few of them," Matt says, as Hawkeye sits back down, her attention returning to Myrna's apartment. He doesn't mention that it isn't just him finding arrows, that the older Matt's mentioned someone firing a phosphorus arrow into a small gang he'd had to fight off as Daredevil three days ago. "I'm guessing that's you?"

"Me and a friend of mine," Hawkeye says, evasively. "We know them--pretty well, you could say. They've been bugging him about his building for weeks, and _I've_ been bugging him about getting a lawyer to help him out with the legal parts. Maybe even shove a lawsuit up their ass."

"I know a few lawyers who'd love to help," Matt remarks, crouching down next to her.

"I'll just bet you do," Hawkeye says, her tone just a little bit amused, and Matt--well, he _wonders_.

They sit in silence for a few minutes more, before Hawkeye zips open her bag and nudges Matt's elbow. "Sandwich?" she asks, bringing out and opening what sounds like a ziploc bag. "Friend of mine made it for me. Something about how vigilantes going on a stakeout should be heading out with something to keep them going through the night besides sheer determination, I didn't have the heart to turn her down."

"You're sure?" He can smell the bacon, lettuce and tomatoes on the sandwich, and--he hasn't really eaten dinner, the only thing he'd been able to munch on was a granola bar that the older Foggy had shoved into his hands before he left the office for his apartment. But he doesn't know if this woman beside him, claiming to be Hawkeye and offering him her sandwich, can really be trusted. Some part of him wants to, though.

"Yeah, I've got an extra sandwich, don't worry about it," says Hawkeye, her heartbeat holding steady. "She looks out for Hawkeyes."

Matt takes the sandwich from her hands, biting into it and chewing thoughtfully, waiting on Karen and Kirsten to come out. It--It isn't _bad_ , it tastes a little better than he expected it to, even if he can tell that whoever made the sandwich bought the bacon cheap. "S'pretty good," he says.

"I'm gonna tell her that," says Hawkeye. "She'll preen for _weeks_." She bites into her own sandwich--turkey, cheese, and baby spinach--and makes a pleased noise at the back of her throat, chewing and swallowing before she says, "You know they're trying to expand, right?"

"Hm?"

"The tracksuits," says Hawkeye. "That's why they're snapping up as many buildings and warehouses as possible. They want a whole block of Hell's Kitchen, all to themselves."

"Figured as much." Mrs. Montero's one of the few still holding out, though, stubbornly holding out despite threats and the rising price of rent. "Someone I know lives on that block. They raised the rent on his building, before somebody else stepped in--"

"--and started chasing them off, right?" Hawkeye cuts in. "Yeah, you know--I think I know that story."

"You know how it ends?" Matt asks.

"Yeah," says Hawkeye. "Pretty well, all things considered, 'cept a few people didn't get to see the end." She pauses, then says, "I'm hoping it goes a lot better this time."

\--

Matt's finishing off his sandwich when he hears the sound of a door unlocking, then the familiar click of heels, smells Karen's strawberry-scented shampoo and Kirsten's mild perfume. "That was--a lot more trying than I thought it would be," Karen's saying, as she and Kirsten descend the stairs, and Matt gets to his feet.

"Hey, are you following those two?" Hawkeye asks.

"I wouldn't be the only one," says Matt. "There's a man leaning against a lamppost, he's been there since we got here. Recognize him?"

"Tracksuit," says Hawkeye, venomous.

Matt takes his escrima sticks out, keeping up the brisk pace that Karen and Kirsten are setting on the ground. The man's following just behind them, the slap of his sneakers against the pavement accompanied by the clinking of knives. There's a smell of gunmetal on the air, accompanied by--well, Matt supposes the guy's shoved his gun into the waistband of his trousers. Not a safe place to hide a gun.

Behind him, Hawkeye's taken her bow off her back, her hand drawing out an arrow from her quiver. "One guy," she says, "that's weird."

"Not one," says Matt, concentrating and letting in a little more of the area, "he's pushing them into an ambush. Five, not counting whoever's in the van."

"A _van_ ," says Hawkeye, and to her credit, doesn't ask how he knows. Later, he'll realize that should've been his first clue. "Wow, your friends must be a real thorn in their side."

"You have _no idea_ ," says Matt, stifling a snort of laughter when Kirsten's voice drifts over to him, talking about Dans Le Noir. He's been there, he'd worked there for a time to contribute to funding Nelson & Murdock. It's a novel idea, and he's glad for the work it provides, but god, it's expensive and the food is _terrible_.

He follows the click of heels, jumps off the rooftop and onto the fire escape as the clicking comes to a stop. Hawkeye follows, her feet landing beside his as he climbs onto the railing.

"You been causin' trouble for us, bro," the tracksuit that followed Karen and Kirsten is saying, his hand going to the gun in the waistband of his underwear, "beeg, beeg mistake, bro," and Matt _leaps_ , one escrima stick already out of his hands and bouncing off a wall to slam into the guy's head.

An arrow whizzes past him, and he hears a sickening squelch when it lands and a _scream_.

"Oh, Christ," says Kirsten, faintly, " _that's_ going to show up in my nightmares."

\--

Things--sort of devolve, from there. Kirsten can't really remember much of it, but she does remember punching a guy in the face on her way out, keys stabbing into soft flesh. Karen's maced another, but Matt--well, Matt _fights_ , and while Kirsten's seen him in action in videos before (not to mention seen _her_ Matt fight as well), this is a wild, brutal kind of fighting, the kind people don't expect to see, usually. She can hear bones break, hear somebody wail, hear bodies hit the ground with a dull thud, and there's a brutal force behind Matt's blows that seems so different from the man she drank with just a few days ago.

And there are arrows flying all over the place and embedding themselves into _eyeballs_ , among other things.

"Did you meet Hawkeye or something?" she asks Matt, as they run out of the alley with a pack of pissed-off tracksuits hot on their heels, and that's when the girl jumps down to meet them, landing in a dumpster and pulling herself out.

"Sort of," says Matt.

"Hawkeye's a _guy_ ," says Karen.

"I'm the better Hawkeye," says Hawkeye.

Kirsten stares at her. She'd heard of Hawkeye taking on a protege, also codenamed Hawkeye, but she'd never met the girl. At least not in her universe. "Haven't heard of you," she says, at last, _at least not in this world_.

"Yeah, I'm still working on getting established," says Hawkeye, notching an arrow. "You should cover your nose, Daredevil," she adds, before letting the arrow fly. Smoke hisses out of the arrowhead, and the second it hits the ground it explodes, engulfing the alley in smoke.

Kirsten's silently glad this Hawkeye's on their side. "My car's this way," she says, out loud, a hand slipping into Matt's to guide him. "Come on."

\--

By silent agreement, Hawkeye takes shotgun, and Matt pulls himself into the backseat with a little hiss of pain as Karen climbs in with him. He's pretty sure one of the tracksuits got lucky and managed to stab him somewhere, and _god_ his head hurts. When he talks to Melvin again he's getting him all the chocolate milk the man can drink, that baseball bat would've splattered his brains out on the pavement had he still been wearing his old costume.

The engine roars to life, and Karen says, "Oh, is that--oh my god _move!_ "

"Moving, moving, _moving,_ " Kirsten says, and Matt's head slams into the car window as Kirsten peels away _fast_ and _oh_ that. That _really hurts_ , he's pretty sure he has a concussion or something.

Hawkeye's rolling down the window, he can hear her turning the crank and cursing, and inch by inch the world outside filters back in, and Matt could cry from relief, except--

"Don't stick your body out the window!" Kirsten half-yells, her and Karen's heartbeats pounding faster in Matt's ears, from the adrenaline and the fear. "What--What are you _doing_ \--"

"Keep left and don't go into any tunnels!" Hawkeye cheerfully replies, and there's the whisper of an arrow being fished out of her quiver, the sound of a bowstring being drawn back. Her muscles tense, her breathing slows ( _inhale, exhale_ ), and the arrow flies upon her exhale, whistling through the air.

There's a faint scream behind them, and Hawkeye shouts, "You'll live!"

"I think you just pissed them off," Matt helpfully says from the backseat, then tilts his head to the right, to get what the tracksuits behind them are saying better over the engine. _She got my hand, bro, crazy broad got my hand!_ one of them is screaming. Good, he _hopes_ the guy doesn't get to hold anything for a long while.

"That's the point!" Hawkeye says, notching another arrow. "Please let this be an acid arrow, _please let this be an acid arrow_ \--"

\--

"Bro! Stop _screaming_ \--"

"Can't, broad got my _hand_ , bro--"

"Broad aiming again, bro, use _other_ hand--"

THUNK.

"Ha! _Missed_!"

"...bro?"

"Ohhhh _shit_ \--"

\--

"Well," Kirsten remarks, glancing at the rear view mirror and taking in the sight of two tracksuits scrambling to get out of their crashed car, smoke seeping out from the inside, " _that_ was one of the shortest car chases I've ever been in."

"I should really get Barton to label his arrows like he keeps saying he will, we're lucky that was a _smokebomb_ arrow and not a boomerang," Hawkeye says. " _Broad._ Ugh. Assholes."

"You and me both," Karen chuckles, from the backseat, then: "Wait, _boomerang_ arrow?"

Matt's quiet, for once, but Kirsten sees him crank the window down, presumably to let the outside world in. He cocks his head to the side, as though listening for something, but there's a little furrow between his brows like he's not sure he can rely on what he's getting. "There's a place in Chinatown that sells pretty good dumplings," he says, suddenly.

"You know we were just trying to get you to track us, right?" Kirsten huffs.

"You mean Prosperity Dumpling?" Karen asks. "I've been there, the place is really tiny, but they have _very_ good dumplings. And there's this Empanada Mama place a few blocks away, Foggy makes a point of heading there _all the time_."

"I've tried them, they're not that bad," says Kirsten, turning right. The adrenaline is fading already, and in its place she feels--well, not _that_ much pain, but her knuckles are bruised from the punch she gave the tracksuit that had come after her, and there's a shallow cut on her cheek. There's a shallow wound over Karen's brow that'll probably just need a butterfly bandage, and no doubt Matt will be coming in to work with plenty of bruises to show for the night's efforts.

But none of them need to go to Claire's place, or worse, to a hospital for the night. She counts that as a win.

Then Hawkeye's phone goes off, blaring _I got this feeling on a summer day when you were gone, I crashed my car into the bridge--_

"Argh, shit, lemme get that," says Hawkeye, squirming around in her seat to dig her phone out from her back pocket and slide her thumb across the screen. "Hey, Clint--"

Kirsten chances another glance at the rear view mirror, and sees Matt's jaw drop. Whatever he's picking up from the call, it's just thrown him off.

"--what, seriously?" Hawkeye's saying. "You're at _Nelson & Murdock_?"

\--

"--uh, yeah, Kate, the Nelson half lives in our building and everything," Clint says, cracking the door to the conference room open a little to see both Foggys leaning on each other and nearly crying with laughter while his universe's Matt buries his face in his hands, "I was gonna tell you but you took off-- _yeah_ I _did_ mean to label those arrows, don't tell me you used them? Aww, Kate. Wait, who's that with you?"

"Half of Nelson & Murdock," Kate says, dryly.

\--

"Wait," says Daredevil--also known as Matt Murdock, apparently, after Kate hangs up on Clint, " _Kate_? You don't mean--Kate _Bishop_?" He sniffs again, and says, a little bit incredulous to Kirsten McDuffie, "How many of you from this other universe _are_ there?"

"Up until now, I didn't think there was anybody else besides me and my Matt and Foggy," says McDuffie. "Did a wormhole suck you in and spit you out in a dumpster too?"

"Nah, we got spit out onto a farmhouse," says Kate. "Did you know the Clint here has a farm?"

"Hawkeye has a _farm_ ," Karen Page says. "Well, now I've heard it all."

"I haven't," says Kate, looking straight at Murdock, who's--staring at her. Sort of. As well as a blind man with super-senses can stare at someone, at any rate. A little part of her is slightly thankful that his eyes are hidden behind those red lenses, because she's pretty sure it'd be unsettling, to say the least. "You know who I am. I mean, I know who you are, but that's only because other-you revealed his identity on TV and everything. But you--"

She points at him. "You knew _me_."

"Because last year," says Murdock, just as McDuffie pulls over behind Clint's screaming red Dodge Challenger, "you were six, and you told Foggy at the Nelson family reunion that you wanted a bow and arrow." He pauses, then adds, "He said he'd only be able to afford Nerf bows because he'd be too busy saving the world with me." And it's only because Kate's a Hawkeye and thus has _very_ good vision that, even in the dim light, she sees Murdock's mouth turn up into a small lopsided smirk as he says, "And then you got mad at me because apparently you were sick of ponies and you wanted a bow like Hawkeye did."

"Other me," Kate says, "has pretty good taste. Tell her to avoid Bernie Gunn at all costs. He's a _creep_."

"Yeah, I've met him," McDuffie dryly says, climbing out of the car. "Guy's a sleazeball. No wonder he's a partner in his own firm."

"He's a _lawyer_ here?" Kate asks.

"Sadly," Page remarks, climbing out of the car as well, her heels clicking on the pavement. Matt follows after her, but takes off down an alleyway instead of simply going through the front door, which--understandable, he is wearing red leather and horns. "You know, Kirsten's Foggy told us something about your other Hawkeye."

"Yeah?"

McDuffie snickers, and says, "I hear he punched Matt out when they first met."

Kate chokes. "Clint didn't tell me that!" she says, as Page opens the door. "Really?"

" _Really,_ " says McDuffie, before beginning: "So I'm mostly getting it third-hand, but from what Foggy's said, Matt had taken up with the Black Widow in San Francisco..."


End file.
